In nature, populations of animals grow in proportion to available food supply; when populations of animals grossly exceed their available food supply, population collapse often results. In the case of the human population, a similar growth trend has occurred, on account of enhancements in methods of food production and availability of sources of energy, for example fossil hydrocarbon fuels, for providing energy for farming and food distribution. The human population is presently around 7 billion people and growing at an approximately exponential trajectory as a function of time. An eventually human population collapse from circa 9 billion people to around 500 million to 1 billion people is expected to occur at a point in time in the future as effects of “peak oil” begin to impact economies of technologically-advanced societies, and energy-per-capita begins to reduce to non-sustainable levels; such a scenario is elucidated in a publication “The Olduvai Theory: Energy, Population and Industrial Civilization”, Dr. Richard C. Duncan, Winter 2005-2006, J. Social Contract. “Agenda 21” (United Nations initiative) is concerned with managed human population reduction to sustainable numbers.
In technologically-advanced societies, for example as a result of mechanisation in farming, a relatively smaller portion of human population is required to execute functions of food production and food distribution, enabling a remainder of the human population to concentrate on other activities, often within urban environments. From United Nations statistics, soon over 50% of World human population will be living in urban environments.
Human activity creates waste, wherein such waste needs to be removed from urban environments in order to avoid a disruption of orderly functioning of such urban environments. As human population grows as aforementioned, existing resources become divided amongst ever more people, such that an increase in operating efficiency of human society is needed if a standard of living enjoyed by people is to be maintained in future. Operating efficiency of human society can be increased by employing recycling, wherein waste in itself becomes a potential resource. However, recycling activities themselves require resources, for example hydrocarbon fossil fuel for propelling waste collection vehicles, and salaries of waste collection staff which are subsequently used by to buy products and services requiring resources for their implementation. Thus, it is important, for a sustainable human population, that waste recycling activities are implemented in such a manner that they provide a net real benefit to the population.
The exponential growth in urban human population, the development of social economy, and improvements in human living standards have resulted in a significant increase in the amount of waste generation. It has thus been necessary to develop new technologies which aid efficient management of waste in urban environments. More recently, urban waste has been viewed as a resource, especially when its materials can be recycled, thereby avoiding environmental damage resulting from primary resource extraction activities; for example, urban waste includes many organic materials which can be bio-converted to peat-like materials, and many combustible materials which can be employed as a source of heating fuel in communal incinerators, for example in combined heat-and-power facilities.
In order that urban waste can be most beneficially recycled and/or disposed of, it is desirable that waste disposal methods are as efficient as possible in relation to resource utilization, for example energy utilization and personnel resource utilization.
In a published U.S. Pat. No. 7,957,937B2 (“Systems and methods for material management”; Applicant—WM Trash Monitor Plus; Inventor—Waitkus), there is described a system and method for scheduling the emptying or replacement of a waste container based upon a degree to which the container is filled with waste, or a pattern of usage of the container. Such factors are considered to predict when the waste container will become completely full, and thus requiring to be emptied. Moreover, the system and method are operable to consider customer preferences and/or limitations of a waste hauler which is utilized to empty the waste container; the system and method determine, based upon the factors, an optimal time for the waste container to be emptied or replaced by the waste hauler. Furthermore, the factors are also used to determine when to accomplish suitable scheduling, namely when to notify the waste hauler that the waste container should be emptied or replaced at a given time. The method employs a computerized scheduling sub-system for scheduling purposes.
Smart waste containers are known; for example, in a published United States patent application no. US2009/0126473A1 (“Method and device to indicate the content of garbage cans and vessels”; Inventors—Porat, Havosha, Shvarzman and Katan), there is described a measuring arrangement for measuring the content of vessels and relay that information to persons remote from the vessels. The measurement arrangement is implemented, for example, as volume sensors, photo-detectors or lasers. The relay of information is optionally implemented via wires or wirelessly. Beneficially, the vessels are garbage cans. A display of display included on the garbage is used to indicate to users a volume of garbage in the garbage can. Optionally, wireless transmission of the volume information to a remote receiver is implemented, wherein the volume information is translated to a readable format so that garbage collectors are able to receive an overview of which garbage cans to empty and which may be left until a following collection.
Although aforesaid systems and apparatus for smart waste container collection are known, there exists a need for a waste collection system which is more optimized for the collection of waste in urban environments.
Waste management industries are growing and need efficient processes to increase revenue margins and to optimize associated resource utilization. From data provided in “Environmental Business International” publication, the US solid waste industry has grown from a value of 39.4 billion US dollars in the year 2000 to a value of 52.40 billion US dollars in the year 2010.
Waste collection companies face various challenges when implementing collection of waste from various sites and recycling stations at different locations; the challenges include the following, for example:    (i) planning and scheduling routes for waste haulers to employ for ensuring maximum waste collection;    (ii) avoiding penalties, for example fines from municipal authorities, for delayed collection of waste, for example where waste overflows from waste containers and potentially represents a safety and/or health hazard;    (iii) predicting customer waste generation patterns, for example based upon daily usage of waste containers, or during festivals and weekends when increased customer consumption of resources, for example food and drinks products, occurs; and    (iv) saving resources, and hence money, and reducing environmental impact of waste collection processes, for example less fuel consumption in waste collection vehicles, using less waste collection equipment, and optimizing waste collection intervals.
For example, it is highly inefficient for a waste collection vehicle to travel to a given site to empty a waste container which is only partially full of waste. It is desirable to improve an efficiency of waste collection, so that fewer resources are utilized in waste collection.